All veterans are not created equal. People join different services for different reasons. They do different jobs while in the service and do them for different lengths of time. There are pharmacy technicians in the Air Force and Green Berets in the Army. Some do four years in the air conditioning and then go off to college. Others spend 30 years immersed in mud and blood and sweat. They do it in backwards countries full of barbarians. They watch their friends die and they come home in silence; you wouldn’t understand anyway.

Most, no matter their service, come home and spend a lifetime as an example of what an American fighting man should be. They give back to their communities. They help others. They join the workforce, show up on time, and rise through the ranks. They raise families. And raise those families to have a love of country and an appreciation for where they are blessed to live.

Others spend a lifetime proving the last great thing they did in this life ended when they got back from Iraq at the ripe old age of 22. Service to your country is respectable. It is NOT a license to be a world-class scumbag.

— “I’m a veteran!” as you show up late to work and your boss tells you that you’re fired.

— “I’m a veteran!” as the cop puts the cuffs on you because you got drunk and hit your wife.

— “I’m a veteran!” as you treat the Constitution like a roll of Charmin Extra Soft.

For too long now, veterans have taken the patriotic respect of Americans and used it like a Get Out Of Jail Free card in Monopoly. Nowhere is this more evident than the veterans who joined high school kids at the anti-gun March For Our Lives rallies last weekend.

The Left has pounced on the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting that left 17 dead because they feel they can gain ground on their ultimate goal of gun-confiscation. In the wake of the shooting, their ever-loyal media allies have paraded survivors from the school across every forum available. Is this done out of some deep care for the children? Of course not. It is because the Left loves to prop up people they think you’ll be too scared to criticize.

Which brings us to veterans. There are roughly 20 million veterans living in the United States today. There are going to be malcontents who don’t understand liberty in there. And nobody can track down society’s malcontents like the Left. So, now they use these veterans just like they use the high school kids. It’s not as if the Left holds some special respect for veterans (though they’ve finally stopped spitting on them when they return home from war). It is done because the Left knows patriotic Americans will be reluctant to criticize them.

Veterans are not sacred. Every vet takes an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States.” That oath doesn’t expire when you leave the service. It doesn’t mean you have to carry a weapon on foreign soil fighting our enemies forever, but at least don’t return home and put the Constitution you swore to uphold through the paper shredder.

The Second Amendment is clear. It is part of the Constitution of the United States of America. It is not a partisan issue. It is not up for debate. American citizens are allowed (and were encouraged by the Founders) to have weapons of war. Those weapons were not for hunting deer. They were for hunting despots. One would hope a veteran who spent time in a place like Iraq would have learned invaluable lessons about tyrants and how they abuse powerless people.

Service to your country is not a lifetime excuse for failure and ignorance. It is a lifetime obligation to hold yourself to a higher standard.

Jesse Kelly is a Senior Contributor at The Federalist and the host of "The Jesse Kelly Show" on KPRC 950 in Houston. Jesse is a Marine Corps combat veteran and former congressional candidate in Arizona. He resides in the Houston area with his wife and two sons.

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Iran fired multiple ballistic missiles at a variety of locations in Iraq. Iran alleges the attacks are in response to the targeted killing of Quds Force leader, Qassam Suleimani.